Who is this and what is he holding?

200 of the masters left for China yesterday! :-) We think that will give them something to do for a while while we get some sculpting finished up.

We sent in a big PO for the 29 Bones models that we can get, just so we have lots of inventory until the rewards castings come in. This also gives the Chinese factory something to do while they start making new molds too. Because you folks wanted to see what they were like and started buying them, we've run out of two models already!

Kit has not been able to get the final data from KS yet. :-(

But, we are hoping to get it soon and then be able to see what it is exactly that we got! We are going as fast as possible, have no fear Underdog is here!

PAX went very well and Bryan should be back tomorrow!

The KS is still on our minds everyday and we are thinking about all of you 17,744 backers and the newbies that have signed up! There were ton's of folks that tried to up their pledge only to have the system crash and then lose their entire pledge! Can you imagine! We hope they all have contacted us and didn't give up!

Comments

Sophie can't be shipped out before the pledge manager because they don't have addresses for us yet. You'll need to finalise your order in the pledge manager before the first round of shipping can happen.

I've seen this question asked elsewhere, but I'll bring it up here since Reaper has commented on it in their latest posts. If Sophie is getting shipped out before the pledge manager is ready, how do we tell you that we've swapped her out for other stuff?

KS also recommends that you wait until just before you are ready to ship just in case someone moves. Another reason for us to write our own interface--so you can manager your account info until we ship to you.

Yes, you can send out the surveys almost immediately if you choose too (even before KS finalizes the payment process), but what's the point if the data you get back is useless?

We are making sure that whatever we set up is bullet proof to the best of our ability and handles most situations without someone having a problem.

It takes time, so please be patient, it's coming. We will start shipping Sophie models and Paints as soon as we start getting data back from our pledge manager, in what ever order we get it back. The paint is being pumped and the Sophie Molds have started spinning to get ready.

I am sure we will at least post pictures of the finished models once they are sculpted. The cloud giant was finished right after the graphic went up so I'll see about getting an update picture for you soon.

We probably won't send out a "KS backer survey" as it is messy and impractical for as large and complicated as our campaign is. We will be sending out a link to everyone for our pledge manager which will put all of your info directly into our database. But, first we must get what data we can from KS and then populate the database with that info before we can send out the link.

Superbacker

@Bob: Or we could all get personalized links to access our "own" version of the RPM (I got one for the Ukiyo-e heroes rewards manager, with a unique code and the manager knew how much I had pledged and what my reward choice had been). That way, Reaper could send emails in batches of 1,000, hoping that we all manage our pledge during said day, thus spreading the stress on their server.

@Chris Fuller
GW uses realistic weapons for the lord of the rings mini's and it doesn't look better than oversized weapons. It has even the disadvantage that long weapons (spears, staffs,...) are always crooked and very easy breakable. (mantic mini's have the same problem.)

I love the armor and the weapons of the giants. The giants could be taller, but not everything could be perferct.

I was so excited to see you guys at PAX this year, was even more excited that I got to paint a mini! I have not painted a miniature in almost ten years, but it is something I have been wanting to get back in to. I loved working with the Bones mini and I am super excited for these to ship!

Are any other kickstarters planned for the future for more minis? I know this one just finished and yes I am a backer vampire lvl. Reaper has been my favorite brand of mini for a long time. Glad to hear your moving production to the USA.

Superbacker

jpred67 - interesting development with the other project you mentioned. Without the final list of backers or pledge amounts they having people fill out a one time survey. I can almost predict some PR challenges brewing on the horizon for that project.

Hey, you know what would be awesome? Posters of the two big images from the pledge drive (The "Vampire Sets" and "Help us dig up all of the Bones"). Great for the Gameroom!

On the "fanservice giantess's" issue though...well I'm not a huge fan, but it doesn't bother me all that much either. I don't really think dragonsfoot, though a decent forum, is a good barometer of all gamers, and it sounds like reaper's stats back it up. For my part the fire giantess is "fitting in" with the male as is the ice giantess already, and not particularly fanservicy. The "Storm GIANT" disagreement in appearance is helped a bit by the fact we were told the giants were a male storm and a female CLOUD giant, so I can forgive the difference between the two, as they're different "species".

Mind you, eventually I'd like to see a muscly burly female storm giant and a fanservicy male cloud giant to even things out and complete sets...

Stop asking for them to move their production to the US! There's starving Chinese children that need the money more than we do and besides, if they did it Prior bringing you your miniatures then you would be stuck waiting 3 years + at Least before you got yours instead of a rather short 6 months. I commend Reaper for providing support to starving children in China though.

I don't know about any policy Amazon may have as Sword and Wizardry closed yesterday, the survey was sent to me that same evening.
The issue with the Bone kickstarter is the massive volume of pledges, options, who paid, has yet to pay, upgrades, increases etc... Needless to say that is a mountain of data to wade through.

Like many other backers, I appreciate Reaper's efforts to move their production Stateside. I have a question regarding the new Bones material: will this enable Reaper to produce huge models like the gargantuan dragons WOTC produced back in the day or (more recently) WizKids' Rune Giant or Galactus?

@ Reaper Will the pledge manager be able to show tallies of what people (as a whole) brought? If it differentiates between all the current pledges & any additions, you could use it to go for a world record for most miniatures sold in a day. That would put another media buzz on KS, Reaper & Bones as well - which can only do good things for both your company & everyone else on Kickstarter. Help promote some of the good ideas in the world, get good press & go for a world record! I mean conservative estimates have to place the total at 4.5 to 5 million miniatures purchased...

Superbacker

@Chris Fuller: By the way, what's funny about this poll is that it does not follow any actual sales data at all. The more nekked and over the top, the more they sell. Sorry to disappoint you but people tend to vote more with their money than with their words.

@Chris Fuller: The Frost Giant is wearing an Inuit-style mask, because, well, she's a Frost Giant. It's not an anime face. That sculpture was done many years ago and won't be changed.

@Daniel Amos: There's all kinds of stuff like that in our forums. Go look! :-)

We explicitly said that at least this batch would be made in China and that we would be investing in the equipment to move production to Texas as soon as we possibly can. Unless of course, everyone wants to wait two years for us to get it all set up and then run the 4 million+ minis.

I think Will should stop trying to look like Will Riker already, and shave that beard :P
But then again, without it, he might look like Wesley too much xD
You guys should have given him that flyer sooner so he could tweet about it, and we'd have twice as many backers. haha!